Tugboat related issues, comments, and opinion.

Some things never change…

It’s been a couple of years since I was working on a conventional tug. I’ve been in the ATB world up to my eyeballs for the last eight years and I look at these temporary duty assignments with a mixed view. Although I love getting back to basics and exercising my skill sets, nothing grates on me worse than having my boat in the yard and me not being there to get the things I need done “my way”.

That said, I can’t worry about two boats at a time so the focus is presently on my current assignment, the tug Franklin Reinauer. So named for one of our late founding fathers and built for the company in 1980 or so. Not a large tug by today’s standards but still a little bulldog of a boat. She’s equipped with a nice little tow winch and a decent amount of horsepower. A five man crew and enough work to keep time flying by at a respectable rate. With quarters a lot tighter than those on the Nicole, she’s kinda tiny really but comfortable in a cozy kind of way. Really cozy once you get in the upper house, basically a box on a stick.

Not so long ago she was one of the coast boats. Making runs anywhere and everywhere towing up to 70,000 bbl barges.

The view from the Franklin’s upper house of the RTC 28’s notch…

The work is now mostly assist work with an occasional barge delivery in either Newtown Creek, Jamaica Bay or Sewaren NJ. We made a trip to each during my few days aboard with a surprise or two.

Surprise number one; It turns out is that Newtown Creek now has a community of sailboats moored along the creek’s crumbling bulkheads outside of the Pulaski Bridge, I can’t help but doubt they’re costing the boat owners anything in the way of dock fees. It’s more than a bit amusing to me that it’s becoming a mecca for gypsy boat owners finding cheap wharfage for an expensive hobby. I hate to see what might become of these opportunists when a windy day and breakaway scow have their way with their fiberglass hulls. I can just imagine the splintering sound of hulls under the bow of a runaway 300 ton scrap scow.

Surprise number two; Who knew that scrap yards harbored statuary? The picture of a few (recovered?) statues lining the wall of the reclamation center in Greenpoint. Very artsy. And finally, no real surprise to find that small vessels still insist on taking the same draw of the Jamaica Bay Subway Bridge as an inbound tow (with a fair tide). Even if they’re law enforcement, some things never change.

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I expect to be back in the ATB world soon, until then I’m enjoying my little piece of regular tugboating immensely. I especially liked nursing a light barge in push gear across Coney Island Channel this morning. I had almost forgot what it was like “sweet-talking the tow” across the channel when a swell was running. Good stuff.

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9 Responses

I live on the Hudson just south of The Newburgh-Beacon Brid Newburgh side just above the Newburgh boat club. My habby is how stuff gets moved. trucks,tugs, ships, cargo plains etc. I have been taking pictures of use guys for a while web site wodywud.smugmug.com. When u mentioned Reinure I think huge wheelhouses but I looked up Franklys and Joanne a little differant then Twins, Christian, Meridth and Laure Ann Have a good voyage Woody

Mark, Our meals are not catered, what you think I work on a yacht? One deckhand a.k.a. P.D.B. (poor dumb b*****d) is chosen to cook, we either suffer or delight in his or her efforts. Just saying though, nobody is losing weight. The average number of crew members varies depending on the work, anywhere from 5 to 10 souls aboard.

First let me thank you for the response The only reason I asked is as a guaduate of the Culinary Institute of America at age 62, I am always looking for ways to get students new venues to see what it takes to cook under differant circumstances. I sailed the US Coast Guard Eagle for 3 weeks and saw firsthand what it took to feed the sailers. I am thinking maybe discussing the possability of getting a student to volinteer to cook for a short tour of duty of course they would get some credit from the school. What do u think ?

I don’t know if that would work, we do carry Maritime school cadets as a regular thing. On occasion, family members join us for a short time and ride along along to see what their family member actually does for a living.
Non-marine related trades don’t generally have access to any kind of ride along without special permission from on high. If I get the chance, I will visit this suggestion on the folks “upstairs” and see what develops. It doesn’t hurt to ask, so I will.

Well I will mention it to a good friend and Chef Insructor department head There is always a chance no one would go for it The department that would handle this would under banquets and catering. Develop a menu, recpies, budgeting calculate needs, scale recipes for the numbers to feed and develop a time line schedual I see the challange here like you say don’t hurt to ask

Yep, I get the same close feeling when heading under some bridges with my 52 foot mast. Most recently heading up the east channel of Roosevelt Island after the Coasties closed the East River by the UN. The bridge operator said the bridge was up at 70 feet but, it sure still looked real close from the cockpit.

Back in 1999 I sailed the USCG Eagle from New London Ct from the US Coast Guard Academy to Guantanamo Bay and through the Panama Canal explain if interested. My point was the foremast and the mainmast are 147.3 ft. I don’t know if it was the Gold Star Memorial bridge or the Amtrack Bridge but there didn’t seem there was but a few feet clearance. You probably have clearance information on bridges I hope. As a tractor trailer driver in New York City for 20+years a similar problem tractor trailers generally come in 2 heights 12ft 6 and 13ft 6 well where the Brooklyn bridge crosses over the Brooklyn Queens expressway the Clarence is marked 12 ft10in but all the city drivers knew you could go under the center lane with no problem but the road drivers would be detoured through the streets what a waste oh one more thing I learned on a tall ship every rope had a name, is it the same in your industry?